[Anna Hornby | Beatrix Potter] Box of Hand Drawn & Colored Peter Rabbit Cards

Hand drawn and colored set of 40 Peter Rabbit cards, housed in wooden card box. Characters included: Benjamin Bunny, Mrs. Tittlemouse, Tom Kitten, Mr. Jeremy Fisher, Jemima Puddleduck, Tommy Tiptoes, Hunca Munca, Johnny Townmouse, Tiggy Winkle, and Peter Rabbit. 

Identified to the rear panel of the box as being created by Anna Hornby of the "2nd Cobham (1st Sandroyd) Company, Age 12 Years". Hornby has noted that the idea was taken from the traditional British card game 'Happy Families'. On the label, she also notes: "Drawings copied from the Beatrix Potter books. Unaided work."

Housed in a hinged wooden box, hand decorated with Beatrix Potter characters, and inscribed beneath "WMH from AH Christmas 1928". The wooden box and cards are in beautiful condition, and generally appear to be unused, with some smudging to the cards that appears to be mostly transfer from ink/watercolor of facing cards. The cardboard box for the cards is worn, with a torn flap. Accompanying the cards is an unrelated note to 'My Dear Anna' from Alfred John Fairbank, referring to Italic handwriting, and gifting a Christmas present.

"Anna Hornby was educated at the independent Westonbirt School, Gloucestershire. She went on to study art in Florence with landscape and flower painter Aubrey Waterfield in 1934, and later that year enrolled at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London where she studied under Francis Ernest Jackson, graduating in 1940.

In 1952, Hornby was appointed Honorary Secretary of the Society for Italic Handwriting, a post she held until 1962. Through her interest in calligraphy and her association with the Society, Hornby became acquainted with Alfred John Fairbank, whose portrait she painted (exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1961). Fairbank was a founding member of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators in 1921, and was also involved in the foundation of the Society for Italic Handwriting in 1952.

Hornby was also a member of the Art Workers Guild and was elected member of the New English Art Club in 1971. She exhibited widely with 13 pictures at the Royal Academy. In addition she exhibited with the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Society of British Artists.

Anna Hornby died in 1996, bequeathing paintings by Peter Greenham and Francis Ernest Jackson to the Ashmolean Museum of Art, Oxford. Many of her papers and letters, including correspondence with Alfred John Fairbank are held in the archives of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford and the National Art Library, London" (Wikipedia).